Graphics issue with Age of Empires II: The Conquerors

[kuliddar]

A solution i found was:

1) Open the task manager up (right-click on taskbar, and start task manager)
2) Disable "explorer.exe" (yes this will make everything disappear but you can get it back from starting "explorer.exe" again)
3) Start the game by using the task manager (File, New Task (Run))

That seemed to work for me 100% of the time.

Hope you get the same results i did.

Scott

Although I do not have AoE, I have a similar issue for Master of Orion II, I tried your fix and it worked, although there are a couple more tweaks to do. Its very encouraging. You can check the thead for Master of Orion II here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/34302-master-orion-ii-anyone-got-work-correctly.html

If you have anymore imput that would be great

 

[Lord Jon]

More info - I uninstalled Conquerors and reinstalled it. The batch file worked fine and the colors were great. Then I applied the "c" patch and I am now where I was before - the disc is not recognized. Very strange - hopefully a solution?????

You can try applying a no-cd patch. That would fix the whole problem of searching for the right disc. I recommend you GameCopyWorld, but I see that they redirected to this site and this site. Here is a direct link to the latest one on MegaGames -

 

[SJMX]

More info - I uninstalled Conquerors and reinstalled it. The batch file worked fine and the colors were great. Then I applied the "c" patch and I am now where I was before - the disc is not recognized. Very strange - hopefully a solution?????

You can try applying a no-cd patch. That would fix the whole problem of searching for the right disc. I recommend you GameCopyWorld, but I see that they redirected to this site and this site. Here is a direct link to the latest one on MegaGames -

I have my game cracked like most of my games because this saves my CDs actually being used. I never thought about this before but this could be a factor in my theory of the "explorer.exe" process working. Maybe when you disable "explorer.exe" CDs cant be read? This is jsut speculation though as I have not tested this myself.

 

[Lord Jon]

Mm, that sounds a bit logical.. I'm gona test this now. I'll post the results soon.

 

[Uber Philf]

If killing explorer.exe works for you, this should make it hassle free. Copy and paste the following into notepad (not including the code start/end headings), and save as "play.cmd" (no quotes)


--Code start--

taskkill /F /IM Explorer.exe
empires2.exe
Start explorer.exe

--Code end--

This SHOULD fix it.

 

[Lord Jon]

If killing explorer.exe works for you, this should make it hassle free. Copy and paste the following into notepad (not including the code start/end headings), and save as "play.cmd" (no quotes)


--Code start--

taskkill /F /IM Explorer.exe
empires2.exe
Start explorer.exe

--Code end--

This SHOULD fix it.

I believe I've seen this before on page 2...
But you're right, it should work!

 

[makster007]

Guys i tried all the above stated fixex..bt nothing worked for my pc. However, you can try o close the explorer while playing the game(open task manager->go to services rab->close/stop explorer.exe).

It worked for me and my friends

 

[Lord Jon]

Guys i tried all the above stated fixex..bt nothing worked for my pc. However, you can try o close the explorer while playing the game(open task manager->go to services rab->close/stop explorer.exe).

It worked for me and my friends

Wait, that isn't logical! You say you have tried all those solutions above but they don't work. But killing explorer.exe will fix it? That's crazy because there are two solutions above that do exactly the same!!!
Anyway, thanks for your help.

 

[Jessica]

Hi everyone. I was having this problem, but I managed to get it all working with Windows 7 64bit.

This is what I did:-

Right-click on the icon on desktop, select ‘properties’ go to the ‘compatibility’ tab, click on ‘change setting for all users’.

Set compatibility mode to Windows 98/Windows ME, tick the boxes for ‘Disable visual Themes’, ‘Disable desktop composition’ and Disable display scaling on high DPI settings’.

Tick ‘Run this program as administrator’.

Select ‘Apply’ and then ‘OK’

This works for me. The only problem I have is that when I ALT+TAB back to desktop and then back into the game, all the colours get screwed up again.

The other way of getting AOE2TC to run with Windows 7 64bit is to run a program called ‘Suspender’. Using this program allows me to play the game OK, but you can’t ALT+TAB any more.

 

[Sasqwatch]

Finally, after trying all suggestions here, I have found one that works.

Change the desktop to Windows classic. Thats it. Runs no probs now.

 

[walt13]

Windows classic did not work for me - the colors are still crap. The post before that one did not work either. When I try to run compatibility for Win 98/ME the program will not load up. When I try for Win XP it loads, but colors are still crap.

Still, the only thing that has worked is disabling explorer.exe, except that after installing the C patch it does not recognize the CD. I also have Alcohol 120 installed with an image for the game mounted so it should recognize that, but it does not.

I was at a friends house last weekend and he has exactly the same issues, including the C patch problem.

 

[walt13]

I just saw this on another forum - maybe a similar solution was posted here earlier.

Change desktop theme to Windows Classic - not Windows 7 basic which I think I tried earlier. Bring up the screen resolution - minimize it. Start the game - it appears to work fine even with the C patch installed. WOOHOO

 

[SJMX]

All this now means that the problem lies within Windows 7's GUI. I dont think that microsoft actually support the game anymore with patches etc so it looks like we are on our own boys with this one.

 

[Spaceritual]

That worked

The going to Windows Classic and then minimising the resolution screen actually works for me on windows 7 ultimate 32 bit, so very pleased

 

[igan]

i also have a problem, you see i am using laptop with 1366x768 resolution under ATI Radeon HD 3200 hardware..

The problem is that the game display with black bars on the left and right and it's not full screen. The colors can be fixed by killing the explorer.exe process although it's kinda making me hectic.

Does any one knows how to fix this?

Thanks

 

[Lord Jon]

please read the above posts

There are several solutions already posted. I don't want to act like I'm getting tired of these questions, but I'm really close to it! For the last time:
READ THE SOLUTIONS ABOVE.
If you don't want to stop explorer manual then make a simple .bat script in notepad. It's explained in one of my posts in this topic.
Take a look at this one and see if it works for you.
Good luck and enjoy the game!

 

[Tony51203]

ditto

I have the exact same problems as you with the C patch. I find disabling explorer fixed the color issues but I still get what I can only describe as shadows on the screen when I scroll. It's like different p[arts of the screen are repeating themselves.

 

[killa4eva50]

I had the same issue. I found that making your theme to "windows classic" and opening the "screen resolution" window before playing a solution.

 

[montu89c]

REG-problem

After entering the game,open the task manager. Go to process and end the explorer[dont end the entire process tree but just the explorer process]. Enjoy the game!

 

[RareMaestro]

Better batch file script

Open the txt file and copy/past the following:

taskkill /F /IM Explorer.exe
age2_x1.exe
Start explorer.exe

Now save and close the txt file and rename the text file to "The Conquerors.bat", make sure that it doesn't end with '.txt' but with '.bat'. All without the quotes.

The batch file that you wrote didn't exactly work for me since after the explorer shutdown command the working directory gets changed to the system directory and then it can't find the game .exe, plus explorer starts up immediately again which results in the same graphic problem for me. I edited it to the following:

@Echo off
taskkill /F /IM Explorer.exe
cd /d %~dp0
Start /w age2_x1.exe
Start explorer.exe

Basicly it changes the working directory to the path the batch file was executed from and then waits for the game to close before it starts explorer back up again. Same story, save as batch file in the same directory as the game .exe and create a link to it. Run the link as admin as else it wont stop explorer.